Social disparities in extreme heat days across U.S. public schools.

Although children are highly vulnerable to higher temperatures and spend significant portions of their time at school, extreme heat events at school locations have not been adequately examined in previous research on social inequalities in the distribution and impacts of heat exposure. We address this gap by conducting the first nationwide study of sociodemographic disparities in extremely hot days at U.S.

Understanding Interpersonal Violence Incidence in a U.S.-Mexico Border Community: A Geospatial Approach.

Background: Interpersonal violence (IV) is a global pandemic. Geographic borders represent unique spaces that are often shaped by cultural clashes, economic inequality, and jurisdictional complexities. Given the intricate social dynamics along the U.

Racial/ethnic disparities in the distribution of heatwave frequency and expected economic losses in the US.

Previous research on social disparities in heat exposure has not examined heatwave frequency or economic damage at the local or neighborhood level. Additionally, most US studies have focused on specific cities or regions, and few national-scale studies encompassing both urban and rural areas have been conducted. These gaps are addressed here by analyzing racial/ethnic disparities in the distribution of annual heatwave frequency and expected economic losses from heatwave occurrence in the contiguous US.

Heatwave frequency and disability status: Thermal inequities in the U.S. South.

Background: Although extreme heat has been found to be disproportionately distributed with respect to socially disadvantaged and marginalized groups, persons with disabilities have received limited attention in previous research on heat exposure disparities.

Objective: This gap is addressed by analyzing the relationship between local heatwave frequency and the percentages of people with a disability and specific disability types in the U.S.

Advancing disability-inclusive climate research and action, climate justice, and climate-resilient development.

Globally, more than 1 billion people with disabilities are disproportionately and differentially at risk from the climate crisis. Yet there is a notable absence of climate policy, programming, and research at the intersection of disability and climate change. Advancing climate justice urgently requires accelerated disability-inclusive climate action.

Impact of heat on emergency hospital admission in Texas: geographic and racial/ethnic disparities.

Background: Studies exploring the racial/ethnicity disparity of the impact of heat on hospital admission are notably limited, especially in Texas, a state with a diverse population and consistently ranking among the top ten U.S. states for heat-related deaths per capita from 2018 to 2020.

Social Inequities in Exposure to Traffic-Related Air and Noise Pollution at Public Schools in Texas.

Although children are particularly vulnerable to the adverse impacts of vehicular pollution and spend significant portions of their time at school, previous studies have not examined or compared school-level social inequities in exposure to both traffic-related air and noise pollution in the same study area. We addressed this gap through a case study in Texas-the second-largest US state based on total population and number of children. Vehicular pollution exposure was measured using: (1) outdoor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO), a widely used proxy for traffic-related air pollution; and (2) road noise estimates from the US Department of Transportation's National Transportation Noise Mapping Tool.

Anxiety and Depression after Winter Storm Uri: Cascading Disasters and Mental Health Inequities.

While cold weather disasters are likely to become more frequent under climate change, most health research is focused on heat waves, flooding or hurricanes. Oriented by a "cascading disaster health inequities" approach, we examine anxiety and depression after a cold-weather disaster using survey data (=790) collected in eight Texas metropolitan statistical areas following Winter Storm Uri (2021). 14.

Disability and subsidized housing residency: The adverse impacts of Winter Storm Uri in metropolitan Texas.

Background: While natural disasters have been found to affect both disabled and subsidized rental housing residents negatively and disproportionately, previous studies have not examined if adverse disaster impacts experienced by disabled individuals in subsidized housing developments differ from those living in other housing.

Objective: We focused on Winter Storm Uri in Texas, USA, which lasted from February 10-20, 2021. We sought to: (1) compare differences in adverse impacts suffered by households with and without disabled persons; and (2) examine how residency in US Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-assisted rental housing influences the severity of impacts for households with disabled persons.

Cascading disasters and mental health inequities: Winter Storm Uri, COVID-19 and post-traumatic stress in Texas.

Previous research on health effects of extreme weather has emphasized heat events even though cold-attributable mortality exceeds heat-attributable mortality worldwide. Little is known about the mental health effects of cold weather events, which often cascade to produce secondary impacts like power outages, leaving a knowledge gap in context of a changing climate. We address that gap by taking a novel "cascading disaster health inequities" approach to examine winter storm-associated post-traumatic stress (PTS) using survey data (n = 790) collected in eight Texas metro areas following Winter Storm Uri in 2021, which occurred against the backdrop of COVID-19.

Social Disparities in the Duration of Power and Piped Water Outages in Texas After Winter Storm Uri.

We assessed sociodemographic disparities in basic service disruptions caused by Winter Storm Uri in Texas. We collected data through a bilingual telephone survey conducted in July 2021 (n  = 753). Being Black, having children, and renting one's residence were associated with longer power outage durations; being Black was also associated with longer water outages.

Assessing the Relationship Between Emergency Food Assistance and Social Vulnerability During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Food insecurity is a major public health challenge that is associated with negative health outcomes in wealthy countries. In US urban areas, food banks and pantries played an expanded role in providing emergency food assistance and addressing food insecurity during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study seeks to determine if socially vulnerable neighborhoods are more likely to receive emergency food assistance during this pandemic, after controlling for distance to emergency food distribution sites and spatial clustering.

Disparities in exposure to fine particulate air pollution for people with disabilities in the US.

Although chronic air pollution has been found to be disproportionately distributed with respect to race/ethnicity and socioeconomic status in the US, previous research on social disparities in air pollution exposure has not focused on persons with disabilities (PwDs). This gap is addressed here by conducting the first national-scale study of the relationship between outdoor exposure to fine particulate matter (PM) and disability status in the continental US. Census tract-level data on average annual PM concentrations (2011-2015) were linked with relevant variables from the 2015 American Community Survey five-year estimates.

Air pollution exposure disparities in US public housing developments.

Fine particulate matter 2.5 microns or less in diameter (PM) is widely recognized to be a major public health concern. While ethnic/racial minority and lower socioeconomic status individuals in the US experience higher PM exposure, previous research on social disparities in PM exposure has not examined residents of federally-assisted public housing developments (PHDs).

Children's exposure to vehicular pollution: Environmental injustice in Texas, USA.

Distributive environmental justice research on children's exposure to vehicular pollution is underdeveloped and few empirical studies have been conducted in the US. This study seeks to address this gap by examining if socially disadvantaged children are disproportionately located in public school districts burdened by higher vehicular pollution in Texas-the second largest US state based on population size. Vehicular pollution exposure is measured using two variables: (1) an index developed by the US Environmental Protection Agency that combines traffic proximity and volume; and (2) outdoor concentrations of nitrogen dioxide (NO), a widely used proxy for traffic-related air pollution.

Social Inequities in Urban Heat and Greenspace: Analyzing Climate Justice in Delhi, India.

Climate change and rapid urbanization currently pose major challenges for equitable development in megacities of the Global South, such as Delhi, India. This study considers how urban social inequities are distributed in terms of burdens and benefits by quantifying exposure through an urban heat risk index (UHRI), and proximity to greenspace through the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI), at the ward level in Delhi. Landsat derived remote sensing imagery for May and September 2011 is used in a sensitivity analysis of varying seasonal exposure.

Air Quality and Environmental Injustice in India: Connecting Particulate Pollution to Social Disadvantages.

While air pollution levels in India are amongst the highest in the world, the link between exposure to air pollution and social disadvantages has not been systematically examined. Using a distributive environmental justice framework, this study connects fine particulate matter (PM) concentration data derived from satellite observations, a global chemical transport model, and ground-based measurements to district level socio-demographic information from the 2011 Census of India. The research objectives are to determine if annual average PM concentrations (2010) and recent increases in average PM concentrations (2010-2016) are unequally distributed with respect to socially disadvantaged population and household groups, after controlling for relevant contextual factors and spatial clustering.

Convergence of COVID-19 and chronic air pollution risks: Racial/ethnic and socioeconomic inequities in the U.S.

Recent research suggests greater COVID-19 prevalence in areas burdened with higher exposure to chronic air pollution, but previous studies have not examined if socially disadvantaged populations are more likely to reside in communities located at the convergence of both COVID-19 and air pollution health risks. This article presents a national scale U.S.

Social inequities in the distribution of COVID-19: An intra-categorical analysis of people with disabilities in the U.S.

Background: While recent reports suggest that people with disabilities (PwDs) are likely to be adversely impacted by COVID-19 and face multiple challenges, previous research has not examined if COVID-19 burdens are unequally distributed with respect to the disability characteristics of the U.S.

Objective: This article presents the first national scale study of the relationship between COVID-19 incidence and disability characteristics in the U.

Disparities in Health Effects and Access to Health Care Among Houston Area Residents After Hurricane Harvey.

Objectives: Although research shows that public health is substantially affected during and after disasters, few studies have examined the health effects of Hurricane Harvey, which made landfall on the Texas coast in August 2017. We assessed disparities in physical health, mental health, and health care access after Hurricane Harvey among residents of the Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, Texas, metropolitan statistical area (ie, Houston MSA).

Methods: We used structured survey data collected through telephone and online surveys from a population-based random sample of Houston MSA residents (n = 403) collected from November 29, 2017, through January 6, 2018.

Environmental injustice and Hurricane Harvey: A household-level study of socially disparate flood exposures in Greater Houston, Texas, USA.

Environmental justice research on flooding has relied heavily on analyses of aggregated geographic areal units and assessing exposure to 'pre-flood' risks (e.g., residence in 100-year flood zones) rather than actual flood events.

Vehicular Air Pollution in Houston, Texas: An Intra-Categorical Analysis of Environmental Injustice.

This article contributes to distributive environmental justice (EJ) research on air pollution by analyzing racial/ethnic and related intra-categorical disparities in health risk from exposure to on-road hazardous air pollutants (HAPs) in Harris County, Texas. Previous studies in this urban area have not examined intra-ethnic heterogeneity in EJ outcomes or disproportionate exposure to vehicular pollutants. Our goal was to determine how the EJ implications of cancer risk from exposure to on-road HAP sources differ across and within each major racial/ethnic group (Hispanics, non-Hispanic Blacks, and non-Hispanic Whites), based on data from the Environmental Protection Agency's National-Scale Air Toxics Assessment (2011) and American Community Survey (2009-2013).

Hurricane Harvey and Greater Houston households: comparing pre-event preparedness with post-event health effects, event exposures, and recovery.

Most disaster studies rely on convenience sampling and 'after-only' designs to assess impacts. This paper, focusing on Hurricane Harvey (2017) and leveraging a pre-/post-event sample of Greater Houston households (n=71) in the United States, establishes baselines for disaster preparedness and home structure flood hazard mitigation, explores household-level ramifications, and examines how preparedness and mitigation relate to health effects, event exposures, and recovery. Between 70 and 80 per cent of participants instituted preparedness measures.

Hurricane Harvey and people with disabilities: Disproportionate exposure to flooding in Houston, Texas.

While numerous environmental justice (EJ) studies have found socially disadvantaged groups such as racial/ethnic minorities and low-income individuals to be disproportionately affected by environmental hazards, previous EJ research has not examined whether disabled individuals are disproportionately exposed to natural hazards. Our article addresses this gap by conducting the first distributive EJ study of the relationship between flooding caused by Hurricane Harvey and locations of people with disabilities in Harris County, the most populous county in Texas that was severely impacted by this disaster. Our objective is to determine whether the areal extent of flooding at the neighborhood (census tract) level is disproportionately distributed with respect to people with any disability and with specific types of disabilities, after controlling for relevant socio-demographic factors.

Linking Industrial Hazards and Social Inequalities: Environmental Injustice in Gujarat, India.

Industrial development in India has rarely been studied through the perspective of environmental justice (EJ) such that the association between industrial development and significant economic and social inequalities remains to be examined. Our article addresses this gap by focusing on Gujarat in western India, a leading industrial state that exemplifies the designation of India as an "emerging economy." We link the geographic concentration of industrial facilities classified as major accident hazard (MAH) units, further subdivided by size (large or medium/small) and ownership (public or private), to the socio-demographic composition of the population at the subdistrict (taluka) level.